The Dickinson press., 1887-09-17
SCANDINAVIAN THRIFT.
THE MEN WHO ARE coNoUERlNG
THE FAR NORTHWEST.

tnc fAh NOhl 6NeSl.
A Scandinavian Settlement in North.
western Minnesota Sixteen Years Ago
How American Enterprise Has Since
Yielded to Stolid Determination.
Sixteen years ago I rode slowly through a
Scandinavian settlement i'll northwestern
Minnesota. Today have returned from n trip
over almost the identical ground l then rode
over. Then these people were poor and dirty.
They lived in holes called dugouts. They
owned but little property. They were strang-
ers i'll the land and they were timid. The
Chippewa Indians, then recently removed
from Red Wing to White Earth, amused
themselves by chasing, stick i'll hand, the
S~candinavians around their farms and threat
ening to kill them. 1t was rare good sport
for the rather cowardly Chippewa to find
white men who were not expert with rifle
and revolver, and who were afraid Of fish
eating Indians. The Americans who lived in
the country previous to 1870 were rough,
courageous men, who corrected an Indian
but once; then he was buried by Borrowing
relatives. SO the Chippewa enjoyed the new
breed of white men, who could not fight and
would not swear, until they tired of tho
pleasures of the chase.
The dugouts in which the Scandlnavians
lived We're generally cxcavatcd in the side of
n hill which overlooked II small lake, and
near at land stood timber for fuel and she'd
building. Their plowcd fields were very
small. They impressed me rs men who had
been cowed lit mentally injured by n life of
hard, unremunerative toll and scanty diet.
They We're dirty and vcrmin infested. They
drank sour milk and ate heavy bread. They
were not meat eaters. Poverty stalked among
them. He who owned a yoke Of cattle, n
plow, q wagon, a COW, and q few chickens
was a man of wealth.
Scattered among these Scandinavians md
living on adjoining claims were vigorous,
courageous young Americans, who had been
raised on Ohio, Indiana and Illinois farms,
and who had been educated in our common
schools. They sprang from prime stock
They were accustomed to our laws and ways
of living and methods of thought. They were
handy men with tools. They were resource
full. They worked hard and lived rs we'll as
they could. They, too, lived i'll dugouts, but,
us a rule, they had n better start in life than
their Scandinavian %neighbors. 1t was patent
to me i'll those days that the American youth
were sure to succeed, and that the native
Scandinavian would fail to make n living.
That was n self evident proposition and easily
comprehended by the dullest intellect.
HOW 1T URSED OUT.
How did it turn out! Today the larger
portion of the Americans who attempted
agriculture i'll 1S7l-3 on the northwestern
plains are scattered from Lake Superior to
Puget sound, from the saskatchewan to the
Rio Erop3n Tln1. 1rar1- ~, ,,ar ,,j,,;,,
camp lying in the Rocky and Salmon river
mountains. They live in huts standing b lean
and small placer mines. They pack heavy
burdens on their backs as they prospect in the
Nermilion Iron range. More than half of
the Americans who then so hopefully UNDER
took to create homes in Dakota IL north
western Minnesota mortgaged their farms
and lost them, lost years of their lives, lost
their hope and steaifastness of purpose, and
they are today virtually wanderers who live
from hand to mouth.
And the Scandinaviansl They are, as a
rule, highly prosperous. The dugouts were
long since abandoned as places of residence,
and in their stead are large, we'll built frame
houses. which stand among shade trees and
well kept gardens. Such houses as 1 looked
into We're we'll furnished. Sewing machines
49, ~ u SNSly OuSS SAll4 luz l1lll
which was wind swept and desolate sixteen
years ago is today divided into fields by good,
cattle proof fences, and heavy crops of
wheat, oats and barley grow OH the incloscd
land. Cattle Craze in fields or on the ada
cent prairies, which is owned by land specu-
lators, and frequently these small herds are
tended by a light haired boy, who rides IN
Indian pony. In sheds stand valuable agri-
cultural tools, which have been paid for. The
work cattle were sold long ago, and in their
stead arc two or three teams Of powerful
horses. And meat is in the pot three times a
day in the kitchens of these houses. These
people have good credit at the trading points,
and they seldom abuse it. They only of ali
the people who have pushed into the North
west have, as u rule, made a success of life as
lived under the hard conditions enforced by
the climate, the land grant railroad corpora
tions and the high price of the goods they
consumed. They achieved this success by
tireless industry, supplemented by rigid econ
omy.
TODAY 1T IS FALSE.
1t has been said sneeringly and with lips
curved with contempt, and SO frequently as
to be generally believed by Americans who
live in the west, that "the Scandinavians sell
40 ~ u ASulCuluA plOQuCo GuuL LQeT raise
which is marketable. They feed the best of
the remainder to their pigs, and what the
pigs refuse to eat they eat themselves" Fiji
teen, sixteen years ago, when these people
were getting a start, that statement was but
q slight exaggeration. To-day it is false in
every particular. They live as we'll as their
American neighbors, and they pay for the
groceries which they cat; and that is a finan-
CIa1 fra nsoctio, xxticG tIo -o,,- ~, A~..:.-
farmer who tills land on tho frontier shrinks
from until he is screwed up to the paving
point by the long headed merchant flirting
chattel mortgages which bear his name in his
face and talking savagely the whilo of pro-
ceedings against him the next time court
meets.
The land owned by Scandinavians is, as a
rule, u~nincumbered, or so lightly mortgagcd
that the payment of interest is not IN oppres-
sive burden. Some of the farms are mort
gagged for from $500 to $500. These mortgages
were laid to raise money to buy stock and
could generally be paid at any time. know
of no Scandinavian who has m%ortgaged his
acres to the utmost extent, us Americans
very generally do, and l know no farmer Of
that people who speculates in the wheat pits
OF Chicago, as thousands of American farm
ers do.
The young ~Scandinavians of American
birth, or those who came hero when they
were young, have lost the peculiar look
characteristic of their parents. And, what is
moro important, they have lost the methods
Of thought employed by their people when
first they arrived on our shores. With good
and abundant food has come courage and in
telligence, and cleanliness, and in many cases
beauty. They are Americans i'll thought and
feeling and action. No people who have
come to our land have been moro quickly rs.
simulated than t~hese.-Franlz Wilkcson in
New York Times.
Hunting the Grizzly.
The skin of the grizzly is one of the most
valuable trophies a sportsman can obtain on
any field, and its rarity, and the danger and
excitement attending the taking of it, the
courage it bespeaks, render it n prize of which
the winner NAV Justly feel Drond for n ,;fo-